Lost Stream Gem: "Kansas City Confidential" (1952)


"Are you my friend?
Are you my plumber?"
--> Iggy Pop <--

"Kansas City Confidential" is a B-movie crime caper...surprisingly taught and tight in the telling...and very pleasing to the eye.

Noir films have always been a guilty-pleasure and this one easily falls in the "better than most" category.

A well-executed bank heist causes an innocent flower delivery guy (John Payne) to be arrested. Later released, but fired from his job anyway...ex-flower delivery guy goes hunting for the real robbers.


Neville Brand & Lee Van Cleef
Jack Elam
The story is standard noir fare, for sure...with some clever twists. But it is the inspired bad-guy casting that sweetens the shuffle.

The bugeyed Jack Elam. The throaty Neville Brand. The mustache-less Lee Van Cleef (looking like Cosmo Kramer). All younger actors playing the heavies and they steal every scene.

"Mask"  -  Iggy Pop /  Beat 'Em Up (2001)  


You're wearing a mask
You're wearing a mask
You're wearing a mask
You look better that way
You're wearing a mask
You're wearing a mask
You're wearing a mask
You look better that way
Are you my friend ?
Are you my plumber ?
Are you my God ?
What do you do ?
Wearing a mask
You're wearing a mask
You're wearing a mask
Which mask are you ?
Which mask are you ?
Complicated crushed up disappointed squirming angry thrusting stabbing regretting starving greedy human alien being, struggling down the street, up the alley, in the elevator, through the party, to the office, in the bedroom, on your way to the morgue.  Bullshitting, lying, doing a good deed or feeling loved barely possible. Aware of insatiable demands of not a society all around you. Chunky frat boys in their shorts, pimps with old semite eyes, sex hoochies of the jungle, sensitive smart alec college graduates, critics fronting franticly in New York city, every body in L.A just plain licking ass or having it licked, irony in place of balls, balls in place of brains, brains in place of soul, where is the soul?, where is the love?, where am i?
Which mask are you ?
Which mask are you ?
Which mask are you ?
You're wearing a mask
You're wearing a mask
You're wearing a mask
which mask are you ?

Good stuff!

Casey Chambers
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